


Nightmare-IV

by metalcowboy



Series: Fireteam Geo [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 07:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21222638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metalcowboy/pseuds/metalcowboy





	Nightmare-IV

Stone and Dusty stood at the edge of the Hellmouth, peering down into the abyss they thought they’d never see again.

“Eugh,” Stone gagged “really thought we’d seen the last of this. This shit stinks.”   
  


“Funny how every time y’assume somethin’ you wind up bein’ wrong.” Dusty said. He looked over his shoulder to Citrine, who put a good distance between herself and the pit, and called out to her. “How y’doin’, darlin’?”

“I’m fine. Perfectly fine from back here, thank you. No need to go closer.” She called back. The thought of even going  _ near _ the realm of darkness was enough to make her stomach quake, especially with the moon and the hive in their current state. “Shouldn’t we get going?” She urged.

“She’s right. We’ve got places to be”

“The summoning pits are right there. But yeah, let’s get a move on” Dusty led stone around the edge of the Hellmouth and towards the doors to the summoning pits. Once the two were safely behind cover, he beckoned Citrine over. She didn’t waste any time, grabbing Stone’s hand and not letting go until they were in the room beyond the Hellmouth. 

“See? Not s’bad. We’re gettin’ there, ‘Trine.”   
  
“Yeah, that wasn’t as bad as last time. At least I could look at it now. But please, just- take one of the jobs  _ not _ down here next time. There’s an entire moon full of nightmares to deal with.”

“Deal” Dusty smiled at her. “Man, remember when we used to come down here? Felt like years ago-”

“It was.”   
  
“Shut up. Anyways, we musta put down four or five dozen ogres. Remember Phogoth? Oooooh, he was one mean bastard. They never could breed one that was as big as he is.”

“They sure as hell tried,” Stone said, rubbing his head. “I must’ve been thrown off that ledge ten or twenty times. It’s a hell of a drop, you really oughta try it.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Dusty said, wrenching the doors to the summoning pit open with his hands. “Les’ just see what they got watin’ on us this time.”

“I know Eris said ‘The nightmares of your past return to haunt you’” Citrine called, making her way around the outer edge of the summoning pit, keeping a close eye on the amalgam of darkness festering at the center of the room. “Powered by… whatever the hell that giant pyramid is. You think it brought phogoth back?”

“Nah, no way.” Stone called, moving towards the center. Dusty hung around the door. “Phogoth was piddly shit compared to everything we’ve dealt with. He was one of the first major hive forces we brought down. No way the darkness would bother with-” 

Stone was cut off mid-sentence as the swirling darkness surged and took form. The black-orange smoke changed hue to a clammy grey-white, and a grotesque clay colored head rose up with a deafening roar. He felt a few bolts loosen in his head as the noise boomed on for what felt like minutes. The hulking form fell to the ground with a crash, and Stone stood face to face with Phogoth, the Essence of Fear.

“Well,  _ fuck! _ ” Stone said, pulling out his greatsword.

“ _ What’d _ I say????” Dusty hollered, putting on his hat and double-jumping to one of the higher platforms. “Every goddamned time!” He laughed, weaving between chitinous pillars and taking shots at the hive spilling from the sides of the arena.

Citrine stood on the outer edge of the room, hands shaking. This was the first real fight she’d been in since she awakened, and she didn’t wanna fuck it up. She loosed a few fusion rifle bolts at a crowd of hive before hopping up onto a raised platform opposite Dusty, and throwing down a healing rift. 

  
“Hey big guy, rift on me! Clear the floor!” She called to stone, who was trading blows with the ogre. She leapt off the platform and down towards Phogoth.

Stone saw her glide through the air and took the direction. He dove and rolled away from the ogre mere moments before a massive hand swung through the air with enough force to turn him into dust. He flew up into citrine’s rift and started keeping the encroaching hive at bay with his scout rifle.

“Hey, ugly!” Citrine called out to the image of Phogoth. The ogre spun away from stone and began lumbering towards her, gaining speed.

_ Here goes nothing _ she thought, rising in the air as electricity began crackling around her, arcing off her body and connecting with the floor and nearby supports. She brought her hands to her side, meeting together to form a sort of c-shape. The room got darker as the arc energy began coursing fiercer and fiercer through her body and convening at the base of her palms. Seconds before Phogoth would have crashed into her, she thrust her hands forward with a shout, and a blinding beam of pure arc energy flooded out, connecting directly with his head and knocking him flat on his ass. 

Over the next few seconds, the beam’s intensity died down and Citrine gently floated to the ground. Dusty swiftly slid up behind her, snatching the orbs of light that she had released, and clapped her on the shoulder. “Helluva job, sweetheart. He’s gonna feel that one.”

Photogth did, in fact, feel that one. His face was a mangled, scorched mess. Arc energy crackled and pulsed all over his skin, popping enlarged chunks of flesh and cracking pieces of his armor. He slowly brought himself to his feet before once again letting loose an enraged roar. His body once again flashed a viscous orange color, and several hive with strange, smoky auras materialized at his feet. 

“Well this is a new one,” Citrine chirped. “He never did that before, did he?”

“Not that I can recall” Dusty said, loosing a couple slugs at Phogoth. They bounced off the strange orange-grey shield surrounding his body. He roared once again and began approaching them. The strange thrall he’d summoned made a beeline for the two guardians. “‘Spose we gotta deal with these things first.”

Stone, still high above, turned and took notice of the new threats, and began firing on them. A few shots to the head was enough to take out one of the thralls, while Dusty and Citrine were able to make short work of the other two. Stone hopped down to meet his fireteam while they slowly backed towards the door of the room. The strange aura around Phogoth had dissipated, and their weapons seemed to be impacting him again. Phogoth’s head began glowing a ghostly purple, and the three guardians quickly scrambled for cover. Dusty caught a few void beams, but no real damage was done as he quickly slid to meet his teammates behind a wall.

“What’s the plan? It’s been a while.”

“Well, you seemed to be doin’ just fine down there beatin’ on him. How’s about’cha keep that up. ‘Trine and I’ll cover you from the hive as long as you can keep him busy.”

“Call out if you need help and we’ll get his attention for you long enough to get away.”

“Got it. What if he does that shield thing again?”

“Rinse and repeat. Just deal with whatever lackeys he sends our way. He’s not exactly subtle about it, we’ll come meet you at that point.” 

“On it” Stone said, running around the corner and beelining straight for phogoth. He slid to the ogre’s side just a hair too late to notice the massive foot coming down on top of him.

“Ah, sh-” He yelled, as Phogoth curb stomped him. The entire moon shook, and Dusty and Citrine looked at each other, irked. 

“There goes that plan.” Citrine said, rolling her eyes. “What you got?” 

“Ah- shit. He  _ was _ my plan. He’s always been good at bringin’ the big ones down. Tell y’what- just, I’ll draw his attention. You try and grab Stone whiles’ I’m bringin’ him towards the back, and then we’ll follow back up with the original plan.”

“Sounds rocky, but it’s better than nothing. Ready?”

“Have I ever been?”

“Thatta boy. Let’s do this.” 

Citrine turned the corner of the support beam, holding there for a second while she waited for Dusty to run out and distract Phogoth. 

Dusty ran out the opposite side of citrine, hootin’ and hollerin’ something fierce. Phogoth lifted his foot, revealing Stone’s completely obliterated corpse underneath. Pebble hovered several feet away, ready for citrine to provide the light needed to rez Stone. Phogoth turned to look at Dusty just as he threw a tripmine grenade, lodging it into a gap in Phogoth’s chitin plate. He pulled his revolver from his side and with one crack shot blew the grenade, sending huge chunks of armor and grey-green blood and flesh splattering onto the floor. Dusty continued running as the ogre roared, once again imbuing himself with that strange barrier. This time a thrall and two acolytes appeared at his feet, again with that same strange aura as before. Despite the racket he was creating, Phogoth turned his attention from Dusty as Citrine was running towards Pebble.

_ Shit, shit shit shit shit shit! _ Dusty thought. She wouldn’t make it. He pulled out his grenade launcher and lobbed a few rounds into Phogoth, trying desperately to wrench his attention from Citrine. Nothing was working.

“Trine! Get the hell out of there, he’s gonna-” 

It was too late. Citrine realized, barely five feet from Pebble, that Phogoth was now barreling towards her, head beginning to glow that sinister purple. She tried to pull her fusion rifle from her back to knock his aim off, but was blasted to nothingness by void beams before she could even grab hold of it.

“ _ Fuck! _ ” Dusty cried out, sliding into cover behind a pillar in the far corner of the room. He peered out quick enough to see Pebble and Lotus, hovering together as close as they could get to the ground. Their small shields would be enough to protect them from any hive while Phogoth was after dusty, but if he went down they would be easy pickings for the darkness-infused ogre. Dusty gritted his teeth, thinking hard about what to do. He could use golden gun- but then what? It could deal with the smaller hive, but it wouldn’t be enough to take phogoth down. He had to get rid of the hive so he could open up the big guy for some kind of attack, something big enough to knock him off balance just long enough to pick up his friends.  _ Sunova bitch! _ He thought.  _ If I had an arc staff I could cut right through ‘em, and maybe even bounce some of the big guys’ beams back at ‘em. Even with that damn bow I could hold ‘em all down long enough. Gotta try something… _

Dusty held his hand out. Minute trails of arc energy began pulsing from his hand. He steadied his breathing as best he could in the given situation, and closed his eyes to focus on his goal.

_ Protect your friends- you already fucked that up. Now ya gotta do  _ something _ to get yerself outta this mess, ya big dumbass. Just make it work! _ Thoughts of losing his friends flooded his mind until he lost control of his arc energy, sending a massive spark rippling through his arm. He winced hard, and slammed his fist against the ground. 

“God  _ damn _ it!” He shouted. He could hear the thrall getting closer and closer to his hiding spot, and Phogoth’s beams were pounding the back of the pillar. He was running out of options, and more importantly, time.

_ If you can’t get the new stuff down, just master whatcha got! _ Citrine’s voice rang in his mind. He considered that option- he didn’t have enough firepower to get through this with golden gun. He closed his eyes and pressed his fist against his head, trying harder and harder to think of  _ something _ . If he’d paid more attention during the staff training-

_ Wait,  _ he thought.  _ Master whatcha got. Sav was trainin’ me about the arc light, not about the staff. I been usin’ this damn gun for so long I never considered- _

He grinned to himself, giving a quick hard knock against his hat. “Ooooooh, you stupid piece a’ shit. Took you this long to get it? Trine’s gonna give you so much guff.” 

Right as the thrall was about to round the corner, Dusty slid out and blasted it’s head clean off with his shotgun. Slinging it around to his side, he drew his revolver and peppered one of the acolytes, killing it, while also placing a few shots in the other. He ran up to it, staggered and on it’s knee, and vaulted over it, pulling a knife into each hand from his belt and dragging them through each of its’ shoulder blades down to it’s waist as he came down behind it. While it was reeling from this attack, he jumped off the ground and spun midair, delivering a powerful kick to its head, snapping it at an unnatural angle, even for the hive. He landed on the ground with a satisfied grin as the acolyte crumbled to dust, and Phogoth returned to his normal color once again. Dusty looked up at the monstrosity and shouted “Come on!” as Phogoth’s body surged with rage. 

Dusty stood still for a second as Phogoth came crashing towards him, waiting until the very last second to roll to the right. Phogoth swung at nothing, spinning to face Dusty, who had just stood up.

Dusty stood and faced Phogoth, lifting the brim of his hat and grinning. “Welcome to the rodeo, ugly-ass!” He yelled triumphantly, as his body began to glow a blinding orange-white. Molten beads of solar energy flew from his body as the aura got stronger and stronger, and he reached his hand down to his hip as if to grab a revolver- but instead his grip tightened around a length of rope. 

Dusty’s eyes opened, a fierce orange behind his white metal head, as he whipped his hand up from his belt and began spinning a molten hot solar lasso above his head. Phogoth roared and began to move towards him, but with a gargantuan motion he brought the lasso down like a whip, and it wrapped phogoth from right shoulder to left hip, like a bandolier. Dusty, pulling hard on the rope the whole time, ran circles around Phogoth’s legs as he began to thrash about in a blind rage, one hand swinging out towards Dusty, and the other attempting to rip the lasso off. Upon contact with the rope, the ogre’s hand almost liquefied- burning the armor plates to a crisp and causing the skin underneath to bubble and boil. Phogoth roared, louder than he yet had, as dusty continue to wrap him up like a hay bale. 

Meanwhile, Dusty jumped into the air, and angling his body almost parallel to the ground, activated his jump booster, letting the rope act as a fulcrum to swing him around and around the gargantuan ogre, wrapping him further with each rotation. Phogoth let out a final cry before toppling to the ground, writhing and screaming in searing agony. Dusty plunged his hand into the ogre’s head to embed the end of the rope inside before hopping off his newly wrangled prey to go help his fireteam. 

Stone and Citrine both flashed back to life, twenty or so feet from the now-captured Phogoth. Stone’s jaw hung open, and Citrine’s eyes shone brighter, as if to simulate widening.

“What… the fuck. Dusty, what the  _ fuck _ is that?” Stone yelled

“It’s my solar silly-string can. What’s it look like, shit-fer-brains? Citrine said to master the element that I have, so I did. I just had to improvise a bit.”

“Dude, I meant like- improve your aim with golden gun. I didn’t mean  _ invent an entirely new super _ !” Citrine called to him.

“I said I had to improvise” he called back. “Anyway, big guy, come deal with this. I dunno how much longer he’ll be hogtied like this.”

Stone, fixing his jaw, pulled out his sword once again. “Right” he said, running towards Phogoth, leaping into the air and bringing the sword down onto his head with enough force to shake the room. The impact split the ogre clean open, and it began to dissolve into that same grey-orange smoke they saw when they came in. The rope binding him dissipated as well.

“Well. Guess that’s that. ‘Spose we should report this back to Eris.” Dusty said, very obviously pleased with himself.

“You  _ cannot _ just expect us to pretend that didn’t happen” Citrine said. “This is huge! You have to start teaching hunters how to do that!” 

“Why? Most ‘them already got somethin’ similar, what with the bow. I’s just making use of what I got. This’ll be my special secret.”

“But-” Citrine continued. Stone shot her a look that said  _ just let him have this one. _

“You know what- whatever you say. Let’s just- let’s go home. I’ve had enough of the moon for one day”

“Sounds like a plan to me”

The three guardians walked out of the summoning pits, leaving behind a smoldering pile of ash and several dozen burn marks on the floor for the next fireteam to find.


End file.
